Blast kills dozens at elite Pakistan hotel

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — With dozens still believed trapped inside, authorities continued to search early Sunday for victims of a massive suicide bombing attack on a five-star hotel frequented by foreign diplomats and the Pakistani elite.

At least 40 people were killed and 250 others wounded on Saturday when a truck full of explosives was rammed into the gates of the Marriott Hotel, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of this politically shaky nation.

The thunderous blast in the heart of nation's capital reverberated for miles, carved out a crater 30 feet deep and set off a fire that continued to burn into the early hours of Sunday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which hit hours after Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, delivered his first speech to lawmakers.

Among the wounded were a number of foreigners, including citizens of Germany and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. State Department said at least one American was killed and several others had been injured and that U.S. officials were working to notify the next of kin.

Islamic militants have vowed to destabilize Zardari's government, which faces growing public anger over Pakistan's alliance with the U.S., especially American military operations against the Taliban who have crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

Fundamentalist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, appear to be stepping up their coordination to attack the Pakistan government to retaliate against government efforts to combat extremism in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, officials said

The size of the truck bomb, the successful strike against a well-guarded target and the apparent careful planning were all signs of a skilled and experienced militant group.

Saturday's bombing struck an American-brand-name hotel that has been an institution here, a longtime watering hole for Pakistani officials and foreign visitors engaged in social networking and political intrigue.

"That's to show that they could strike in the heart of Islamabad," Stephen Cohen, a Pakistan expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said of the attack's orchestrators. "It was a symbolic target."

A prime target

The hotel sits less than a mile from Pakistan's Parliament and is close to the prime minister's residence, where Zardari and many of his ministers were dining when the blast went off Saturday evening.

The suicide bomber's truck was packed with more than a ton of explosives, authorities said. The blast ripped through the Marriott's walls, blew out ceilings, scorched trees, reduced nearby cars to charred husks of twisted metal and shattered windows hundreds of yards away. Flames began shooting out of the windows of many of the hotel's 290 rooms.

"I felt that a powerful earthquake had struck," said Mohammed Mushtaq, an employee at a government building across from the hotel.

Although the hotel had been subjected to at least two smaller attacks in recent years, this time the bombing's planners chose an hour when the building was sure to be overflowing with people: after sunset, as hotel guests and other visitors sat down in one of several restaurants to break the daily fast observed during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Lou Fintor, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said there were no official embassy functions scheduled at the Marriott on Saturday evening. But visiting American delegations often stay at the Marriott, including last week, the staff of Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. response

The Bush administration strongly condemned the bombing.

"This is a reminder of the threat we all face. The United States will stand with Pakistan's democratically elected government as they confront this challenge," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House.

Zardari, who is due to meet President George W. Bush at the United Nations this week, vowed after the bombing to rid his nuclear-armed country of the "cancer" of terrorism. He reminded Pakistanis that he was no stranger to the horrors of such violence, being the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December.

During his first address to Parliament, Zardari had pledged to "root out terrorism and extremism wherever and whenever they may rear their ugly heads."

But his actions are severely constrained by Pakistan's military and intelligence services, which remain the most powerful institutions in the land and which have a long history of actively aiding Islamic fighters.

During the tenure of former President Pervez Musharraf, U.S. officials expressed dissatisfaction with what they saw as a less-than-full-bore campaign by the Pakistani army against the Islamic militants who took refuge on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.